By 2050 one person will die every three seconds if we don’t tackle antibiotic resistance

With modern medicine, as with many other aspects of our lives, we tend to believe the journey we are on is linear and progressive – that a combination of advanced technologies, better treatments and smarter techniques will inevitably mean more and better ways of treating disease and living longer.

The Prime Minister’s announcement earlier this week, which talked about how the use of artificial intelligence might revolutionise cancer treatments, saving tens of thousands of lives over the next decade, is a good example of this narrative. History suggests it is well-founded: over the last 70 years, the NHS has given great cause for optimism, and if we’re bold and decisive in embracing the potential benefits of the coming data revolution, then the impact on healthcare could indeed be transformative.

Yet there is another possible future, much harder to confront, yet demanding a similar if not greater commitment to act. It is a future in which common infections and minor injuries kill once again, and where the types of intervention we routinely deliver today, such as caesarean sections, chemotherapy and hip replacements become extremely dangerous. This is due to drug resistant infections, also known as antibiotic resistance.

If we do nothing, then by 2050, drug resistant infections are projected to cause 10 million deaths a year – equivalent to one person dying every three seconds and more dying annually than from cancer